Cross border trade in the Great Lakes region – an impact evaluation

1. Cross border trade in the Great Lakes region – an impact evaluation Kevin Croke Maria Elena Garcia Mora Markus Goldstein Michael O’Sullivan Sabrina Roshan

2. outline • Rationale • Project and impact evaluation description • Status report • Preliminary conclusions and lessons learned

3. Project rationale • Africa Region Gender Practice: • Focus on generation of evidence about economic empowerment, voice/agency, and endowments • Cross-border trade identified by Africa Region Trade Practice as: • Important for regional economic growth • related to ongoing conflict between DRC and Rwanda • Agender issue (90% of traders are women)

4. “Risky Business” Africa Trade Practice Report (Jan 2011) • Recommendations • Officials should be sensitized that small scale traders are not “smugglers” • policy transparency vis-à-vis tariffs • border officials need training on gender issues • Improved infrastructure needed • Increased representation of traders through associations

5. DGM, DGDA, OCC, PNHF Ligne Frontière

6. Our intervention • Context: larger World Bank trade project on upgrading the border posts • World Bank funded local NGO to train: • Cross border traders on tariffsand legal procedures • Border officials on governance and gender • Joint workshops for both groups • Additional activities: • Training for trader association formation; media information campaigns; provincial level comité de pilotage

7. Impact evaluation • Focused on training intervention • Project has macro-level institutional interventions coupled with more discrete individual-level interventions • Individual training comprises a large portion of International Alert’s activities under the project

8. Logic of intervention • Traders lack information about correct border procedures, tariffs, and taxes – “walking in the dark” • Officials lack information too: mistaken view of informal trade (“smugglers” perception) • Question: IS INFORMATION ENOUGH?

9. Baseline Data Collection • In August/September 2011 data was collected from: • 628 small-scale traders (324 treatment/324 control) • 66 border officials • Collaboration with Catholic University of Bukavu • CUB staff led focus group discussions • Training for students on survey implementation • Local CUB “call center” for mobile component

10. Baseline survey • Incidence of harassment and gender based violence • 28% had been spit on or insulted in last month • 6% had been hit in last month • 2% of respondents suffered rape/attempted rape in last month • 5% report some form of SGBV in last month • Most frequent perpetrator DRC police

11. Corruption and gender-based violence

12. Mobile phone data experiment • Starting in Fall 2012, mobile phone tracking was attempted • But…highest contact rate achieved was <50% • Mobile phone component temporarily shelved

13. Challenges & Lessons: Collecting data in a turbulent setting • Initially mobile data collection seen as a way to deal • mobile, hard-to-reach population • “noisy” outcome variables • But face to face worked better than mobile • No DRC bidders • uncharged phones • capture by spouses/sales

14. Challenges & lessons: institutional issues on the ground • Border officials rotate frequently, despite project efforts • Conflict delayed project and data collection • Regional government has bigger things to worry about – which puts our work on the back burner

15. Challenges & lessons: collaboration? • Project works across a number of different units • brings a range of perspectives • but makes contracting, approvals, funding quite difficult • Security protocols hinder travel • Cross border projects raise issues of how teams work across CMUs • Differences of opinion with the implementing partner

16. The Way Forward • End-line survey • planned June/July 2013 • Program continuation or alteration?